Remembrance
by Cora1
Summary: Bridger recounts Sept. 11th to Lucas


Remembrance 

Nathan sat in his quarters watching his vid-screen, images running through his mind as he heard the stories over the vid. He heard a timid knocking at his door. Running his hand through his thinning hair, Nathan crossed over to the door. 

Upon opening he saw Lucas and moved out of the way to let him in.

"Sorry to disturb you sir, but I went to the bridge and they said you had already left. We had plans to go over the vocorder improvement. If you forgot that's okay we can do it later." Lucas said this all very quickly, he felt bad for interrupting. Tim had told him the captain wanted to be alone, but…

Lucas made his way back to the door.

"No Lucas, I'm sorry I did completely forget." Lucas nodded and turned to open the door. "No, Lucas stay, I want to explain why I did.

"Captain, you don't have to, I understand." Again Lucas turned to leave.

"Do you know what day it is?" The captain asked quietly.

Lucas paused and turned back thinking.

"Uh, Tuesday?" He said thinking hard until it dawned on him. "September 11th."

Nathan nodded and Lucas walked back to him and sat down on the side of the couch. 

"Were…were you there?" He regretted his question immediately, as he saw the emotions play across the captain's face. "Sorry, sir that is a personal question." 

"No, its okay Lucas. And yes I was there. It was 01 and I was still with the Navy. We were to be shipped out from the Harbor. I was only 2 blocks away from the Trade Towers." Nathan stopped as he reveled in the memories.

"Uh…excuse me Captain," Lucas cleared his throat, he felt stupid for asking this question. "What exactly happened? History was not a favorite of mine." Lucas felt his face heat up, of course everyone knew September 11th was a dark day in history, like December 7th, but he did not know the whole history. And through time the story had become blurred. 

Nathan's eyebrows rose as Lucas said this. He thought this day was told to all elementary students, but then again Lucas did not attend elementary very long. Nathan went over to his chest that was under the vid-screen, he dug around for a while before he found what he was looking for.

Lucas waited patiently as Nathan leafed through some papers. Finally Nathan stood and held out a yellowing newspaper to Lucas. 

The front page screamed 'Terror Hits Home' it was dated September 12th. The picture depicted the twin towers with smoke pouring out of the top of one tower and a fireball coming out of the second. Underneath the headline was a smaller one 'Nation on high alert after planes smash World Trade Center, Pentagon. 

Nathan sighed and began to tell what had happened on that dreaded day.

"I was in New York City waiting to ship out, I had the morning to do what I pleased. I was with my friend Austin Baker, we had joined the Navy together and this was our first assignment together. We got up early, we both wanted to see the Statue of Liberty and do a bit of other sightseeing."

Nathan stood up and began to pace as he relived the story.

"We saw the Statue and we decided to go to the top of the World Trade Center and see the view from there. We got 2 blocks from the Trade Towers when we heard a low buzzing noise. I looked up and commented to Austin how low that Boeing 767 was flying. I had just finished my sentence when it hit the first tower. We ran closer to the towers to help, the thought didn't even cross my minds that it was intentional. After getting through the crowds of people running against us we made it to the towers. We ran inside to see how we could help. We realized we could do nothing so we turned back and grabbed a few people who were just huddling in the corners. We dragged them out into the street and I had just turned to see the second plane. That is when I knew it was intentional." 

"That was one of the worst moments, realizing that someone did it to us on purpose, it was not accidental, someone wanted to kill thousands of us."

"We ran to the other tower and did the same thing we did in the first tower…we found people who needed help getting down the stairs or were to afraid to move. I think between the two of us we were able to get out 15 people. By then the place was a zoo, the police and fire department had arrived and New Yorkers by the hundreds were trying to get away."

Nathan paused as another memory surfaced. He walked over and sat next to Lucas and leaned back into the cushions. He grimaced as he began his next part. 

"Austin ran back into the second tower to help some more. We had gotten clearance from the N.Y.F.D to stay and help, they were trying to clear the area as best they could." Nathan sighed sadly. "They were truly amazing men and women, they ran right in and did everything they could. Then…then someone screamed one of the towers was going to collapse. I don't know why it didn't dawn on any of us earlier, but that started another stampede. I realized Austin was still inside. I tried to run to the tower to get him, but a fire fighter caught me. He heard me yelling for Austin, he told me it was to late and then we saw the tower start to crumble, we ran to a car, broke the windows and crawled in. It is a moment I will never forget. I saw the tower come all the way down and it was if the hand of God swept up all the dust and threw it at the city. It came barreling down at us like a tornado. I closed my eyes and prayed. I still had Robert and Carol at home, I had plans to build the Seaquest, I had so much I wanted to do and now…." Nathan paused again and gathered his breath. 

"When I opened my eyes, it was still dark, the dust hung in the air choking off our oxygen. The firefighter and I crawled out of the car and somehow found a fire truck, they had oxygen tanks. After we were outfitted we made our way back to the…rubble. For a moment the dust cleared and sun peeked through, we could all see the extent of the devastation, but what caught my eye was a little girl standing not ten feet from the rubble. She was covered in dust, but there she was holding her teddy bear watching us. I ran over to her and gave her my gas mask. She looked up at me and asked where her mommy was. Then she asked if I was Nathan. I was so surprised, how would she know my name? I took her over to the fire truck but they there were so busy that I took her a couple of blocks away where the air was clearer. I asked her what happened and how she knew my name."

Nathan looked over at Lucas, the boy was sitting entirely still totally transfixed on the story. 

"So how did the girl know your name?" Lucas asked, he couldn't stand that the captain has stopped there.

Nathan sighed and continued. "Austin. He had found her up on the fifteenth floor, crying for her mother. Austin told her the way down and that a man named Nathan would be waiting for her at the bottom. She…she was the last one to talk to Austin that day." Nathan stopped as his voice cracked. "She…Amber had a doctor's appointment later and her mother took her to work so she could take her to the doctor's. She was only 4 years old. Her mother went to a meeting and told Amber to stay in her office no matter what. The meeting was on the 98th floor. The mother had no chance. Austin found Amber and told her what to do and then left to help someone else. I don't know how Amber survived the dust cloud, but there she was."

"We walked back to my hotel and I left her at the day care. I couldn't take her back to the site and I knew if I did they would take her away and probably lose her, it was a very chaotic time. I told the lady in charge what happened and who she was, so she could keep an ear out. I left I had to see if Austin was okay. I went back to the rubble. They had started digging and I just joined in. I don't know how long I stayed I think it was two days, until the fireman I hid in the car with came and got me. We went back to the station and got a few hours of sleep. Then it dawned on me that I had not called my superior to tell them why Austin and I did not check in and I had not called Carol to let her know I was okay. I called my superior first and he understood and told me to stay and help out, he would be sending more men to help anyway. Then I called Carol…" Again Nathan choked up, he looked at Lucas as he felt him pat his arm.

"As soon as she picked up the phone she started crying she had been so worried, my superior had called and told her that I had not reported in. I couldn't believe that I had forgot to call her. After she had cried herself all out, she started yelling, why didn't I call her, did I know what I put her through, she called everyone we knew and on and on. It was pretty refreshing. I promised her I would be home soon, but I wasn't sure when. After the call I went back to sleep, then back to the site. We pulled out a few firefighters the first day but after that it was pretty dim. Everything was covered in dust, we didn't know what we were sorting through. We made a line and passed rubble to each other until it reached a dump truck. The truck took the rubble to others who would try to figure out what each piece was. What disturbed me the most was articles of clothing and personal items, it made the whole situation real, thousands of people had died, in a matter of minutes."

"I stayed for a week, until I was ordered home to rest. We never did find Austin. Upon arriving home, I visited his parents and helped set up a funeral. I spoke at it and told how he was a hero and no one could of done better, his life was not taken in vain. Amber had been taken into child protective services after the second day of the attack. I saw her once before I left. She told me I was her guardian angel. Her father lived in the Dominican Republic." Lucas gasped and looked at Nathan questionably. "Yes, she was in the plane that crashed in Queens on the way to the Republic." Lucas teared up but rubbed his eyes as he waited for more of the story. 

"About a month later we bombed Afghanistan where the terrorist Osma bin Laden lived, the main suspect. I was to be sent over to fight, but I came down with meningitis, when I finally was well the Navy gave me a desk job. I didn't mind I was able to live at home with Carol and Robert for a while."

Nathan smiled as he thought of something else, he looked over at Lucas and began to tell him the last of his story.

"After the attack Americans became very patriotic, even those who didn't even know anyone who had died were affected. American flags were displayed everywhere, people were much kinder, it was the America we all wanted. It turned out to be a horrible time and a wonderful time all at the same time."

Nathan stood up from the couch, he grabbed the newspaper and looked at it one last time before he packed it away again in his chest. He turned to Lucas, "do you want to get dinner? I'm starved and we can go over your vocorder schematics."

"Yeah sure, and Captain… thanks for telling me."

With that Nathan slung his arm over Lucas's shoulder and the two of them left Nathan's quarters to go to the mess. 


End file.
